Raggedy Barbie

Yesterday, inspired by a call for submissions for an Altered Barbie art show at happy delusions, I spent a rainy Seattle afternoon holed up in my studio making this:

I call it Raggedy Barbie.

I printed the face onto photo transfer paper, ironed it onto canvas material and using McKenna's Raggedy Ann doll as a reference, cut out all the body parts like this:

 Then stuffed it, sewed on yarn hair, and made a patchwork print dress and ribbon belt.

Here's a close-up. 

I probably spent over 6 hours making it. Minus the Barbie face, it looks a lot like a rag doll I had when I was little - her name was Minneapolis and she had yellow yarn hair and a patchwork dress. In college, I made several rag doll-related works of art including a 3-dimensional fabric collage atop an antique quilt titled Annabelle Lives in A Patchwork World. It was a girl (composed of my clothes) with yellow yarn hair leaning against a fabric tree. I also made a painting of Raggedy Anne all grown up and stuck in a toy box.

 It hangs in McKenna's room now. I suppose rag dolls are a theme for me, which is why when I thought about how to alter Barbie I instantly thought of making a her into a traditional rag doll. Barbies are usually sexy and stylish. Rag dolls? Not so much. The juxtaposition of the two is a wee bit off-putting. When I was nearly finished making it McKenna walked in, looked at it, screamed! and said, "That's a creepy doll mom!"

 Ha! She warmed up to her though.

And now they're friends.

Thrift Thursday - Another Mt. Rainier

I found this painting of Mt. Rainier today: 

It's a little different than the one I found 3 months ago but I like it just as much. Erik looked at it quizzically and said, "Didn't you already get a painting of Mt. Rainier?" to which I responded, "Yes! And now I have another one." Then he looked at it closely and said "Eh, I think you could paint a better one." Critic! I still like it. In fact, I think I've found a new thing to collect - original oil paintings of Mt. Rainier that end up at thrift stores. The hunt is on...

Art to pee by

Here are some close-ups of our bathroom art:





I purchase those two paintings at St. Vincent's thrift store last month and paid $50 - more than I'd ever paid for art from a thrift store before. I just had to though. I fell in love. The detail is amazing and the egg imagry goes so well with a bird theme we have going around our house. The trees reminded me of the view in our backyard in Bedington, WV too. The colors in these paintings soon became my inspiration for the bathroom.

 This screen-print on fabric is from Ikea. It was hanging in our downstairs hall and while I was shopping around the house for more bathroom art, I realized it would be perfect.



This is a painting Sage made when he was 5. It's a snail. I love it.



I got this tile in San Antonio when I was 8 months pregnant with Sage and it's been in hte bathroom of every house we've lived in ever since.



This is a collage I got at All Aboard! in Atwater Village. The top got damage in our move so I added the sunshine at the top to cover it up.

 

Thank you for visiting the VanHorn family gallery bathroom. Don't forget to flush!